Tejashwi to appear before CBI court on Tuesday in IRCTC scam case

Patna, Oct 17 Bihar's deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who is facing corruption charges in the IRCTC scam case, will appear before a special CBI court in Delhi on Tuesday.

He will leave for Delhi on Monday evening. Tejashwi, who is currently on bail, has to appear before the special CBI court of Geetanjali Goyal.

Earlier, the CBI had filed an application before the court seeking the cancellation of his bail. Following this the court had issued a notice to Tejashwi Yadav on September 17 and asked him to appear before the court. In a directive of court, it had said that if Tejashwi Yadav violates the conditions on which he was given the bail, then the court could cancel it immediately.

The CBI is using this condition as an advantage to level charges against him. The agency in its complaint to the court pointed out that Tejashwi Yadav and his family members were involved in threatening the officials of CBI from open platforms in a bid to influence the investigation. He also did a press conference and tried to stop the investigation. He also challenged the constitution of the country, the complaint said.

The CBI officials also claimed that Tejashwi was facing charges of economic offence and the way he and his family members tried to influence the investigation was a violation of the terms and condition on which the court had granted bail to him.

The probe agency had filed an application in the court of Geetanjali Goyal and senior lawyer D.P. Singh and Manu Mishra appeared on behalf of the CBI.

Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Misa Bharti, Hema Yadav, Rabri Devi and others were facing charges of corruption in the IRCTC scam. The CBI registered an FIR against Tejashwi Yadav and others in 2017 and the court had given bail to him on October 6, 2018.

The IRCTC scam took place between 2004 to 2009 when Lalu Prasad was the Union railway minister. During his tenure, two hotels were given on lease without following the norms. One of the hotels was allotted to Sarla Gupta, who is wife of Prem Gupta, a close friend of Lalu Prasad. He was also a Rajya Sabha MP at that time.

Besides, Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav, Prem Gupta, Sarla Gupta, railway officials Rakesh Saksena and P.K. Goyal were also accused in this case.